


Shades of purple

by potanio



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, boys being dumb, hypothetical aliens at McDonalds, matching outfits, more like starqayzing, stargazing?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-31 01:44:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8558335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potanio/pseuds/potanio
Summary: At first, Lance didn't like that new Keith boy. Actually, he did in fact declare him his enemy at some point! But as time pass by, their enmity slowly transforms into some sort of strange friendship, and they settles into some kind of routine...
That is to say until Lance one month later gets a text he certainly did not expect, and they end up running around the city past midnight! And for every small adventure they experience, Lance only falls for the mullet-haired boy more and more...





	

**Author's Note:**

> this work is heavily based on for him. by troye sivan, where also the title comes from! also, for him. is such a klance song, and i really recommend you listening to it!!

If you’d ask some of their classmates what the deal with Lance and Keith was all about, they’d probably say that they were rivals, neck in neck, always fighting over grades.

If you’d try to ask their teachers instead, then they’d probably say that Lance and Keith were the best students in their class, but one of them should really try to keep his voice down during lesions.

If you’d feel like asking their best friends, they’d probably just roll their eyes and say that they were the most dense idiots god ever created. And somehow, they were all right in their own ways.

It all had started when this new kid had moved to town, and Lance not soon after that realized that he was no longer the top student in his astronomy class, which to make things even worse, happened to be his favorite subject! Instead this mullet-haired boy with the mysterious loner look all over him had topped the class. But the worst part was probably that this guy was really pretty as well! Like, really pretty. No one so crude should be allowed to be that pretty!

So Lance did the best he could out of the situation, he declared this new guy his rival. The most shocking part of it all was that this dude just seemed to accept it, and decided to roll with it. And just like that, Lance had gotten himself an arch rival.

And so Lance and this new boy, Keith as he not that much sooner realized that his name was, started to compete over everything, like who’d get the best results on their homework tests and who’d score the most goals in the obligatory “friendly school football tournament”, which never quite ended up being that friendly… In conclusion, Lance often felt like punching that fucker in his guts. (but something told him if he did, he’d probably get knocked out after like 10 seconds, since this so called Keith was apparently really good at material art).

But as the time passed by, Lance and Keith started talking, and not just tease and mock each other as they usually did. They didn’t talk much or about anything special in the beginning, but sometimes during breaks they’d sometimes forget about the stupid rivalry-thing they had going on and just talk like normal teenage boys. And that’s how Lance realized that they actually had quite a lot in common! They were both obsessed with space, even though Lance preferred the stars and Keith the aliens. They also realized that they both were a sucker for really bad movies, like _Sharknado_ kind of bad.

Lance wasn’t sure exactly when it had happened, but somehow they’d exchanged phone numbers, and was frequently texting each other about literally anything from their English teacher to the Fermi paradox. And sadly, that caught Hunk and Pidge’s attention, and so their endless teasing started. And Lance liked it. (except for the teasing of course).

He soon realized that Keith was so much more than he first had thought. Keith was actually quite funny, and even if he didn’t get most of Lance’s jokes, he’d sometimes ad these perfectly funny comments in the exact right places, that always took Lance by surprise. Keith was also very caring person, even if he didn’t really show it.

Sometimes Lance would even wonder why he never had like Keith in the first place, but then Keith would suddenly beat him at a pop quiz, and Lance would remember… It settled into some kind of routine. By day, they’d constantly try to beat each other’s asses and by night they’d text each other about the meaning of life. Most people would consider this kind of relation really strange, but for them, it sort of worked. …

 

That is to say until one month later, when Lance got a text that he certainly did not except.

 

**(10.30)From Keith**

_Hey sorry about the short notice, but are you doing anything tonight?_

Lance felt his heart skip a beat. What the fuck? Since when had Keith ever wanted to hang out with him outside of school? It wasn’t like he complained or anything, no it was actually rather the opposite, but it still took him by surprise. And what normal human being asked someone if they’d like to hang out at half past eleven on a Thursday? Lance’s heart was still beating slightly faster than usual when he wrote his reply.

**(10.33)To Keith**

_sure dude!! what did you have in mind lol?_

It took a bit for the reply to come, and Lance was almost starting to think that Keith had fallen asleep or something, if it wasn’t for the fact that Keith like honestly never slept, never.

**(10.40)From Keith**

_I got these tickets to this movie and was supposed to go with shiro, but he got sick right before and since I don’t want to throw away the other one i thought you’d like to go instead?_

Oh, so that was the reason. If Lance’s heart had beat fast before, it certainly didn’t now. He had just been a replacement, of course. He almost laughed to himself, had he actually believed that this would mean something? But he figured that he should go anyway. Lance sort of wanted to hang out with Keith, no matter how strange it might sound, and free cinema didn’t sound half bad.

**(10.42)To Keith**

_sounds fine with me!! when and where?_

 

…

 

It took a while for Lance to sneak out of his house because it was no fucking way his mother would allow him to go out after ten on a school week, and since his house was full of snitchers, he’d have to take the complicated way out through the bathroom window to make sure that he would be unseen.

But when Lance finally arrived to his destination around a quarter later with only a few new scratches on his knees, he felt as if he’d made the right decision. It was pretty warm outside for September and the sky had a beautiful peach color, and even though Lance didn’t really like to confess it, he was one of those people that were lowkey obsessed with appreciating, and taking pictures of the sky.

Keith was leaning towards his motorcycle that was parked a few meters from the entrance of the cinema. It was a slightly older model, with shining red details. It hadn’t taken Keith long to reveal his enormous interest in motorcycles when they first started texting, and at the beginning it had given Lance the impression that Keith was secretly having an awkward middle-age crisis, even if 17 was pretty damn far away from 45. But seeing the thing in real life made Lance think that it was actually sort of hot. Then Keith caught Lance looking, and gave him a small smirk before making his way over to greet him.

“Hey, you made it!” Keith said while resting his hand on his waist, still wearing the leather gloves that he’d worn while riding the motorcycle. It took a while for Lance to realize that he was being talked to, he had been too busy… appreciating Keith’s aesthetics as he’d told himself, but then it hit him, and he cleared his throat, only blushing a little bit.

“Well, as the true gentleman I am, I couldn’t leave you hanging could I?”

Keith snorted. “You, a gentleman? That’s probably the worst I’ve heard all week.”

“Oh you know its true mullet-man, you are just in denial! Anyway, I thought we had a movie to catch?”

 

…

 

The movie was really bad, but it wasn’t bad in that kind of way that would ironically make it good, it was just bad. They hadn’t even watched fifteen minutes but Lance was already remarkable bored, and considering the way Keith looked, he didn’t really fancy it that much either.

“Hey, tell me again why you decided to see this movie, because no offense, but even that Avatar the last airbender movie was better than this and that says a lot” Lance finally said when he’d watched yet another extremely cringy scene and just couldn’t bear it anymore.

Keith just shrugged. “I don’t know, Shiro wanted to see it I guess.”

“No offense but I actually thought that Shiro had better taste in movies than this! Shiro is no longer as much of a role model that he used to be. But he’s still a role model though, like he could even like pineapples on pizza and still be a role model!” Lance said, sinking even further down in the slightly uncomfortable armchair.

Did Lance just hallucinate or was Keith blushing?

“I-I don’t actually think he knew what the movie was about…” He slowly answered, before continuing “…and I think pineapple on pizza is pretty good actually.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “If he didn’t know what it was about, then why did he want to see i…” He started, before realizing what Keith had said afterwards, and continued with a clearly higher voice then before. ”Wait what did you said about the pineapples?” The people the closest to them started to angrily stare at Lance for ruining the peace, but Lance just ignored them.

“I said that it was kind of good on pizza.”

“Are you serious? Pineapple on pizza is almost as bad as Twilight! Like thinking that’s good is actually really low even for you!” Lance didn’t even feel sorry for his neighbors that were still angrily staring. Well okay, he did feel a little bit sorry but the subject of people _actually_ liking pineapple on pizza was a pretty fucking important.

Keith opened his mouth once again, looking confused. “What’s wrong with Twilight?"

Well, that was the last straw. ”Please tell me that’s a joke Keith, Twilight is almost as bad as this movie!” Lance said (or screamed would be a more fitting word) while eagerly gesticulating with his arms. Keith just looked confused.

“Are you sure we’re talking about the same Twilight? Because I think it’s really good, it was one of my favorite movies when I was younge…”

“Oh for goodness sake _shut your fuck_ Keith!” Lance cancelled, with a voice as load as ever. “And I thought that we were actually getting along there for a moment but now…”

Keith hadn’t been the only one to not finish their sentence, because Lance was interrupted by someone clearing his throat behind him, and when he turned around to see who, he found himself facing the cinema’s one and only security guard…

 

…

 

They got kicked out from the cinema, and that’s all there is to say about it.

Well, now he finally got to cross of the _“get kicked out from a cinema for arguing about Twilight and Pineapples with your rival that is actually not you rival and that you also really like”_ dot from his bucket list.

“Well.” Lance finally said after a few minutes of awkward silence. “I never gotten kicked out from a Cinema before, but there’s a first time for everything am I right?” He shot two finger-guns towards Keith, but who seemed to be too deep in his thoughts to notice.

“I didn’t know that you could be kicked out of Cinemas.” Keith mumbled.

“Weell, as I said, there’s a first time for everything!”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right!” Keith shrugged, giving Lance the small satisfaction he always got when Keith actually agreed to something he’d said, which sadly never happened nearly as often at it should.

The sky was still beautiful, even though it was no longer the bright peach color. It had instead taken a much darker shade with a few stars shining through. It was a shame that their movie-activity had ended that quickly, because Lance did not feel like sneaking back into his house quite yet. The night was still young, and the possibilities were infinite. It seemed as if Keith was thinking the same thing, because he was, just as Lance staring longingly towards the sky. But unlike Lance, Keith translated the feeling unto words.

“Hey, it would be a shame to get home now, right?” Lance nodded, maybe a bit too eagerly for his own liking. Keith continued to stare at the stars a little longer, and Lance could practically pinpoint the moment Keith got the idea. And sure enough, Keith soon turned around to face Lance, with a wide grin playing on his face.

“You aren’t afraid of heights, are you?”

 

…

 

After a few minutes of a combination of walking, running and screaming they reached the place Keith had suggested, which turned out to be an old, poorly managed motel by the far end of their small town. They were no cars in the parking lot, and the only thing bathing in the swimming-pool was a few leaves.

Even though Lance had lived in this town for all his life, he’d never really noticed this motel before. He assumed that this might be one of those buildings that might have been modern a popular for a long time ago, but as the time passed, they fell into oblivion.

“If you wanted to spend the night with me, you could have just asked you know!” Lance playfully flirted. Keith only responded by punching him in the shoulder.

“Ouch man, that hurt!” Lance whined. It hadn’t actually hurt him that much though, and Keith knew that. But once a drama queen, always a drama queen.

“Anyway, I guess this place is cool and all, but are we just supposed to look at it because I’m sure as hell not going inside. That shit’s probably haunted.” He continued as the dramatic effect had faded. Keith didn’t answer his question, and only asked Lance to follow him as he gracefully jumped over the fence guarding the building.

Lance, for once actually doing what he’d been told followed Keith, almost as gracefully. When they reached the building, Keith suddenly stopped next to a ladder that reached high up into the sky. Oh, that’s why he’d asked about the eventual fear heights, it kind of made sense…

“You’re not backing out, are you?” Keith asked, but it actually sounded a bit more of concern than the usual teasing, which took Lance by surprise. Even though Lance loved their teasing and bickering, it was always a nice reminder that Keith wasn’t just this stone cold person that Lance had first made him out to be, which was really nice except for the fact that sadly, this side of Keith only made Lance fall for him even more… Wait, never mind all that sap, the important part was that there were no way he was backing out. Lance mumbled something like ”In your dreams ” under his breath, before taking a steady grip on the ladder and beginning to climb.

 

When they’d reached the top, Lance understood why Keith had brought him here. The view was breathtaking, and since the motel was quite high located, they could see almost the whole city bathing under hundreds of stars.

“Holy moly, this place is amazing! How’d you find it?” Lance said, still with his eyes attached towards the night-sky.

Keith shrugged. “Well, I accidentally found this place the first week I got here, and I’ve returned loads of times since then. It’s a nice place to go to if you get away from things I guess.” He laid down on the roof, signing deeply, as if he’d recalled loads of memories at once.

“Yeah, I can totally imagine that! Both this place being a good “hide from reality” spot and you brooding here, listening to your emo music!” Lance laughed, before lying down next to Keith with his arms behind his neck.

Keith wrinkled his eyebrows at this. “I don’t brood.”

“Well, you my friend are doing some good ol’ brooding right now so don’t even try! And I love how you didn’t even try to deny the music!” Lance laughed harder this time, when Keith wrinkled his eyebrows even more. They’d lied there for a while looking at the stars, both caught up in their own thoughts. It was nice though, even if the space between him and Keith was way too small for Lance’s liking, but on the same time way too big, since Lance could feel his heart skipping a beat every time Keith moved even the slightest.

Lance wanted to laugh; of all the people he could’ve gotten a crush that didn’t only last one day, why did it have to be Keith? And why did every second he spent with Keith make him feel more and more like falling for him maybe wasn’t a bad thing after all?

Well, life sure is strange.

“You know Keith” Lance spoke after a while, desperately trying to push away these uninvited emotions. When he heard Keith answer a muffled “what”, he continued. “I don’t actually hate you right now. And I don’t actually think I ever had when I think about it, even though you like pineapples on pizza and Twilight which I’ll never understand!”

“Well, it’s mutual then, since I don’t hate you either. Neither had, even though you’re can be sort of obnoxious from time to time and officially declared me you enemy the first time we met.”

Lance cringed at the memories of their first meeting. How could he have ever thought that would have been a good thing to do?

“I’ve never been that good with first impressions to be honest… I think Allura stills has nightmares about that awful pick-up line I used the first time we met. It sounded so much better in my head!”

This time it was Keith’s turn to laugh, even though it giggling would have been a more suiting word.

“I can’t tell what’s worst, making someone your arch enemy or telling them that if they were a fruit, they’d be a fineapple.”

Lance blushed a bit. “W-well, you guys still haven’t abandoned me yet so it could have been worse! And if I’d never made you my enemy, then we wouldn’t be laying on a motel roof at 12.am having the most peculiar bonding moment ever!”

“Yeah, I’ll give you that.”

They fell into a comfortable silence once again after that, taking in every sensation around them to preserve this moment for a long time afterwards. Lance could see Cassiopeia high above him, and he got this strange feeling to reach out his hand to see if he’d be able to touch it. And because Lance is Lance, he did as his instincts told him.

“Sometimes I feel like taking a step over the edge and just fly away to become one with the stars. Does that even make sense to you?” Lance’s hand was still raised, only a little disappointed that he did, in fact, not manage to touch it.

Then Keith sat up that suddenly so that Lance almost gasped in surprise. When Lance looked closer on the said boys face, he noticed that Keith had a look in his eyes that he usually didn’t. Lance had always thought that Keith was pretty, ever since the day they’d first met. But at this moment, with his black hair swaying in the wind and that daring glimpse in his eyes, he looked breathtaking.

“Then that settles it. Let’s jump!” Keith said, as if it was the most obvious thing ever. He must have seen Lance’s confused expression, because he quickly added “The pool is located right under us and it’s not that high of a fall, it’ll be a piece of cake!” Lance could feel Keith taking a steady grip on his hand, dragging him up in a standing position.

Lance still wasn’t quite sure if Keith was joking or not, but when Keith dragged Lance towards the edge, he suspected that it might be the later one. It didn’t look that high… (Well who was he kidding, it looked pretty damn high and Lance could slowly begin to feel his legs turn into jelly. He realized that he was still holding hands with Keith, and even though his first instinct was to let go, he couldn’t manage to do it quite yet) Keith sneered towards Lance, with that stupidly attractive glint still in his eyes.

“Are you scared McClain?” It was as if those words changed something in Lance. Suddenly, all the fear was replaced with determination and his legs felt more stable than ever. Him? Scared? No way.

“Oh you wish Kogane.”

He replied, before taking a leap from the roof. And as Lance fell through the sky, he actually felt as if he was a little bit closer to the stars than he’d ever been before.

 

…

 

“Hey, Keith” Lance said as they lied on the grass with clothes and hair soaking wet and their pulse clearly higher than normal.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s go shopping. My _mamá_ would honestly kill me if she’d notice me in these wet clothes, and I’m sure as hell not going to spend the rest of the day…well night like this!”

The fall hadn’t been that bad after all. The water might have been a bit cold, but apart from that it had actually been rather exciting and Lance was now filled with adrenalin from top to toe.

Keith sighed deeply before answering.

“Not to destroy your dreams or anything, but most stores are usually closed at twelve a clock. It would be nice to get a change of clothes though”

“Well, maybe you should have thought about that before getting all wet Keith _“I like to jump of roofs because I’m dumb” Mullet-man_ Kogane.”

“Okay first of all, you were the one to jump first and second, what has my hair with this to do?” Keith answered a bit irritated, self-consciously reaching his hand to stroke his long, black hair.

“I’ll just pretend that I didn’t hear that. Aand, just because you as usual didn’t think before doing something doesn’t mean I didn’t. So I’ll say it once again, let’s go shopping!” Lance began to sit up, and now it was his turn to drag a slightly confused Keith up after him.

“Wait, where are we going?”

Lance smirked. “You’ll see when we get there!”

 

…

 

Nyma’s junkyard had been around for as long as Lance could remember. No one was quite sure when the store had gotten there, and no one was quite sure about what exactly they were selling either. But one thing was sure, if you really desperately needed anything from parts for your car to last minute presents for your nephew, they’d have it. The other certain thing about the store was that they were practically always open.

And sure enough, when Lance and Keith opened the door to the small shop, they were greeted by a tall, laid back man with a hawk like nose and loads of piercings from his eyebrows to nose sitting behind the counter reading a magazine about cars. Rolo, as his name badge told them, just nodded as a greeting and only raised one eyebrow at their soaked clothes before returning to his magazine.

“Welcome to Nyma’s junkyard, also known as the only place you could can buy 10 bottles of spray cream and street crayons at five am without anyone asking questions! Come on, let’s find us some clothes!” Lance spread out his arms, amused at Keith’s star struck expression, when he looked at shelves after shelves stuffed full with things that you normally would never find in a usual store. Something told him that some of these things might even be illegal…

“Whoa, I had no idea that this place existed!”

“Since I didn’t know about the motel I guess we’re even now!” It didn’t take long for Lance to locate the clothes department, which consisted of multiply coloured items messily thrown into a basked.

They spent a little while searching among the assortment, until Keith with satisfaction pulled out a red t-shirt, with a rather ugly motorcycle print up front. And when Lance started laughing at his horrible chose, Keith pulled out another, almost identical t-shirt but with a dark blue colour instead with an even bigger satisfaction on his face. But Keith’s expression dropped when Lance threw a pair of black booty-shorts at him, with another pair firmly in his other hand.

“Are you kidding me?”

“Well, they’re like really cheap” Lance shrugged, and somehow, Keith actually agreed on that motivation because they were both college students, and as you may know, college student aren’t exactly known for having an abundance of money…

Not soon after that(and 20 dollars poorer) they were dressed in matching outfits and with their old clothes safely stored in Lance’s backpack with their other valuable properties that he’d somehow managed to save from the pool-incident.

“Pidge would have a field trip if they saw us now… all that hypothetical blackmail material this would cause” Lance shivered at the thought. Those pictures Pidge’d managed to catch from that time Lance had somehow managed to fall asleep in a doghouse was still fresh in his mind.

“Good thing they’re not here now then.” Keith was awkwardly tugging at his shorts, which actually fitted him very well. Okay, Lance might have had other reasons to get those shorts than them being cheap, and Keith’s butt was approximately all of them. Lance could feel his gaze linger on the said butt for a longer time than necessary. Damn it, how could Keith even possible manage to pull of this ridiculous look?

They said their goodbyes to Rolo who mentioned something about their “cool ass outfits” while giving them thumbs up, and they started to walk down the road not quite sure about their destination.

“Hey Keith, this is probably a weird questions but why are you so obsessed with motorcycles that you actually bought us merchandise of them? Like no offense but these t-shirts don’t even look good.”

“Have you ever ridden a motorcycle? It’s probably one of the best feelings ever.” The glimpse in Keith eyes returned for just a second while talking.

“No, I wouldn’t know since I’ve never ridden one before… I mean I guess I used to want one when I was younger, but my mum made it pretty damn obvious that weren’t going to happen…” Lance’s heart skipped a beat because suddenly, his hand was in Keith’s once again dragging Lance with him while running the opposite direction.

“W-wait, where are we going this time?” Keith just laughed, while picking up in speed.

“We’re going to give you a life changing experience”

 

…

 

8 minutes later, Lance found himself outside of the cinema once again. Or to be more specific; outside of the cinema and next to Keith’s beloved motorcycle. Keith was at the moment grubbing after something at the tray of the bike, and it didn’t take him that long until he apparently found what he was looking for and proudly pulled out a slightly ragged spare helmet. It took Lance a while before he figured out what was exactly going on here…

“Wait a minute… are we going for a ride?”

“What does it look like to you?” Keith said, while handing Lance the spare helmet.

According to Lance it looked like he was going to ride on a motorcycle with his _“former rival_ ” and if the rumours about Keith’s careless driving, he wasn’t quite sure if he was going to survive the ride…

“Are we both going to fit on the bike? Isn’t it waay to small, and have you ever even given anyone a ride before? Because like no offense, If you haven’t before there’s no fucking way I’m not going to be your test subject, _Nunca jamás_! I’m way too young and beautiful to die!” Lance rambled as hundreds of emotions passed through him at once. Keith, that bastard started to snigger at this.

“You don’t have to worry, I’ve given loads of people a ride before! Or at least two… but of course, we don’t have to do this if you chicken out!”

“No no no no, I really want to do it! I’m just kind of scared that I might regret it and that my mum will find out and skin me alive afterwards but I still want to do it, like really!” Lance rapidly said, jumping a little bit on the spot, mentally preparing him for what would come next.

“Okay, let’s get going then!” Keith had settled on the bike, and was now patting the empty spot behind him as a gesture for Lance to get on. And after a little more agitated skipping, he did.

Lance made sure to sit down as far away as Keith as possible, but not too far away that he’d accidentally fall off. It’s not like he didn’t want to sit close to Keith, no it was rather the opposite, but he wasn’t sure if his fragile heart would manage that and he didn’t want to make things weird for Keith.

Man, things were weird enough as they were right now.

So instead, when the bike started with a low racket, Lance only grabbed unto as little of Keith’s jacket as possible to keep it all at a _“no-homo”_ level.

It was fine at the beginning, it was actually rather nice! The city was almost quiet and it was still quite bright outside. It was very beautiful, and they had a moderate speed. It wasn’t that bad after all! But that was before they got out from the narrow streets and traffic and entered the highway instead, and Lance’s opinions quickly changed as Keith put his foot on the accelerator.

If the ride earlier had been calm and enjoyable, it sure as hell weren’t now. Lance could honestly feel his soul leave his body when he almost flew backwards as they hit a speed so high that all of the surroundings turned into a big blur. The _“no homo”_ line that Lance had carefully placed earlier was now non-excitant, since Lance was at the moment clinging to Keith with all of his might, knowing that if he fell off, not even the helmet would guarantee his safety.

Lance had to remind himself to have a serious talk with the person giving Keith his license later on, because it was no way that Keith was driving within the speed limits! But after a while, when Lance’s soul had once again returned, he actually found himself thinking that maybe this weren’t that bad after all! Except for the high possibility of him falling off and breaking every bone in his body of course… but he had never felt as alive as he did right now!

“This is amazing! And horrifying! I’m a bit conflicted right now!” Lance screamed, not sure if Keith had heard him or not. But when the bike started moving even faster after that, he took it as a yes; Keith had in fact heard him.

And as they drove on the empty highway with at least 100 km per hour, Lance got this strange urge to let go of Keith and recreate that classic scene from titanic, or maybe that one from the perks of being a wallflower, but the knowledge that those ideas would probably not end well made him rethink his awesome idea, and he hugged Keith a bit tighter instead while he still could.

But just as things usually have a tendency to do, the ride came to an end and Keith parked the bike outside if an old, secluded McDonalds, and Lance couldn’t decide if he were happy or upset that the terrifying, and yet thrilling experience was over.

 

…

 

The McDonalds was nearly empty except for the tired looking cashier and an older couple in the center of the restaurant. The few people didn’t seem to care about the new boys’ appearance, or their strange, matching outfits and the cashier only gave them a puzzled look when they ordered milkshakes that somehow ended up matching their color-schemes, Lance one with blueberries, and Keith one with strawberries. After they’d paid for their drinks, the two boys seated themselves in the far corner of the fast food restaurant, almost hidden behind a large, orange colored pillar.

“I hate to admit this, but I can almost sort of understand your obsession with motorcycles now...” Lance said, leaning back into his seat and sipping on his milkshake. “…even though I thought you were actually planning to kill me once or twice during the ride... Like dude, how do you still have a driving license?”

Keith smirked. “Yeah, it usually has that effect on most people, but they tend to focus even more at the _“I thought I was going to die part”_

They fell into silence after that, only interrupted once or twice from the slurping from their drinks. Lance could feel his eyelids getting heavy, and he decided that he should probably check the time. He pulled out his phone from the side pocket of his backpack, and tried to focus his gaze at the numbers in front of his space-themed background. Half past two. Damn, things would certainly not be funny when his family found out about this nightly adventure…

Well, if they found out about this...

“Hey Keith, do you want to play twenty questions?” Lance said after a while, pushing away the thoughts about the hypothetical integration that awaited him at home.

“Huh, I don’t think I’ve played it before, but sure? How do you play it?” Keith answered, wrinkling his eyebrows.

“It’s pretty much what it sounds like, we’ll just take turns to ask each other 20 questions and _voila_ , that’s it!”

Keith still looked a bit confused as he spoke. “But what if you don’t want to answer?”

“Then… umm…”Lance began, before hastily looking around the McDonalds for inspiration. “Then you have to go to the old couple over there and take a bite of their food without asking!”

“There’s no way I’m going to do that!” Keith quickly said, looking a bit terrified (and disgusted) at the thought. Lance rolled his eyes.

“Then you just have to answer the questions _Mullet!_ Okay, first one. Have you ever cheated on a test?”

It took a little while for Keith to tear his eyes away from the sight of the elderly couple, still with the same look on his face. “No, I don’t think so… I’ve never needed to I guess?” Of course Keith didn’t have to cheat to get his amazing results; he probably didn’t even study either. But somehow, Lance didn’t feel as jealous as he would have been weeks earlier. No, he was actually feeling… sort of proud?

“Okay… so what’s your favorite color?” Keith slowly asked, while his attention once again returned to the old couple. “Uhm, no offense dude but are you even seeing my outfit right now?” Lance exclaimed, tugging on his blue shirt, showing off his dark blue painted nails in the process. ”It’s blue, if you couldn’t tell. I was expecting better of you! Anyway, my turn. What’s up with you and those people, do you know them or something?”

Keith gave the couple another, mysterious glare before leaning over the table towards Lance, almost knocking over his milkshake in the process. Lance took that as a sign to shift away from his comfortable position to lean over the table as well.

“Okay, here’s the deal…”Keith whispered in his ear, and Lance tried to ignore the strange feelings Keith caused by being this close to him the best he could.

“Promise you won’t laugh, but I think they might be aliens.”

Lance doesn’t think he’d ever laughed that much ever in his life.

He wasn’t sure what explanation he thought he’d get, but it sure wasn’t that. But knowing Keith, he honestly wasn’t that surprised when he thought about it.

“No but honestly Lance, what normal, old couple eats dinner at McDonalds around half past two? And their clothes looks like they’ve been picked out at randomly from multiply of different decades! And that woman is eating her hamburger piece by piece, doesn’t that seem odd to you?” Keith said, dead serious in a quite hushed voice to make sure that the hypothetical aliens wouldn’t hear. Lance was still laughing when Keith grumpily leaned back towards the sticky, plastic sofa with his arms crossed.

“Hey Keith” Lance jokingly said after a while; when his laughter had calmed down a bit. “What if you’re actually the alien and you’re just trying to mislead me by blaming that poor, innocent Homo sapiens couple?" Keith looked personally offended.

“Just because you deny it doesn’t mean they don’t exist.” He murmured, before shooting a quick, final look at the couple. Lance couldn’t help himself from laughing just a little bit more.

“I’ll believe that when I see one, but until then, you’ve got to keep your crazy ass conspiracies for Pidge!”

“Well, I can’t be the only one with an odd obsession… I think that for my next question, I’d like to know something you enjoy that you don’t usually tell people.”

That wasn’t actually a bad question when Lance thought about it, unlike from Keith’s last one. But what did Lance actually enjoy doing? It wasn’t as if he was madly in love with motorcycles and aliens like Keith was, and Keith already knew about his interests in space and beauty products, so the only thing left was probably…

“I play the ukulele” Lance said, and he wasn’t quite sure why this made him embarrassed. There was nothing awkward or uncool with playing the ukulele, but Lance guessed it felt kind of personal. Keith’s eyes widened.

”Are you serious? That’s really cool, you have to show me!”

Lance hadn’t thought that Keith would respond this positive, and it honestly made him feel even more embarrassed. But he wouldn’t let Keith knew that, so he rolled his eyes and thought up his most sarcastic answer, hoping that it’d be enough.

“Suure, just let me pick out my emergency ukulele from my backpack! Maybe I should grab my guitar from there when I’m still on it.”

Keith rolled his eyes as well. “No, I mean that you should show me some other time.”

Wait, did this mean that Keith generally liked hanging out with Lance, and that this super weird night wasn’t just a onetime thing?

“Oh” Lance quietly said, trying his best to hide his, probably obvious blush. “I’d like that.”

“That’s… nice”

The silence between them were no longer comfortable, it was tense and awkward and not that enjoyable.

“So...”Lance slowly began, when he realized that he no longer could pretend to drink his already finished blueberry milkshake.

“My turn, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

“Honestly, I don’t know… but I think I’d like to help people or something, to feel like I’m making a difference in the world. I can’t imagine myself working in some stupid office when there are children dying of starvation, you know?”

Lance only nodded, not having the heart to tell Keith that he wanted to be an esthetician, but Keith’s words still touched his heart. Damn, he’d just expected some simple occupation for an answer, not this heroic dream that made Lance weak-kneed.

“You know how I show you the motel earlier” Keith asked, and Lance nodded once again as an answer. “Well, for my next question I was wondering if you have a secret place like that, and what it is.” He continued.

“Yeah, I do actually, there’s this old outlook not that far away from my house, and the view is like really breathtaking. You need to go there sometime!”

Keith was just about to reply something when the ringing of a bell interrupted them, and they slowly leaned towards the end on their sofas to see who it was that had entered. It was two people, a little bit difficult to see who they were though since they were quite far away. But as they got closer, they managed to see a woman with dark skin, long white hair and a stylish pink dress. Next to the woman was a man, about the same height and with the front of his hair dyed white as well and slowly, the pieces fell into place.

“What the hell is Shiro and Allura doing here at this time? Like they always try to tell me how fucking important it is to go to sleep early, and yet here they are!” Lance caught Keith’s eyes, asking in a confused voice, slightly loader than necessary.

“I have absolutely no idea. He didn’t tell me about it so?” Keith murmured, scrunching his face together into a perplexed expression.

“Wait… didn’t you tell me that Shiro was sick? Then why is he having dinner or whatever it’s called at this time with Allura?” The perplexed look on Keith’s face started to slowly wear of, and he was slowly turning into a blushing mess instead.

Lance, dense as he was didn’t really understand what this might depend on.

“It is not like Shiro to lie to someone just to create his own plans, so why’d he do that? You know Keith, maybe he’s the one that has been replaced with an alien impersonator? Let’s watch if he’ll join the old alien couple to discuss the conquering of the earth!”

Keith didn’t even bother to shove Lance off, and was still blushing, stubbornly staring into the table. Something sure wasn’t quite right here.

...Wait, what if Shiro wasn’t the one that had been lying?

What if…

“Did you lie about having an extra ticket to the cinema so that I’d hang out with you?” Lance almost yelled, and Keith’s reaction gave Lance more than answer to that question.

“Oh… but why?” Keith wasn’t the only one blushing now. Like, who much blushing could they even do at only one night? If there was a limit, then they’d probably crossed it a long time ago.

“I wanted to hang out with you?” Keith said, still avoiding eye contact and nervously fidgeting with a napkin.

“Yeah…” Lance could hear his heart beat faster and faster. “…but why?”

But Keith was once again interrupted, because during the time they’d nervously stared into the table, Allura and Shiro had moved closer and closer, until their lips met, and the gasping of the old couple next to them had informed Lance and Keith of the sudden change.

Lance almost screamed out of surprise but managed to stop himself in the last moment.

“What the fuck? Since when is Shiro and Allura dating? I totally ship them though, they’ve been pining on each other since forever but they didn’t even tell us? I am deeply offended!” Lance said in a hushed voice to not interrupt, gesticulating towards their friends.

“Yeah.” Keith answered, and Lance wasn’t quite sure on what he’d replied on,

“It feels like watching your parents kiss though, ugh it’s horrifying! Anyway I’m going get some blackmail material.”

Keith looked at Lance uncomprehendingly.

“You’re… what?”

Lance grinned. “I just told you, I’m going to get some blackmail material! Please be my view guard while I take some photos” Pidge and Hunk would honestly do anything to see this, and Lance was not that kind of person to waste such a remarkable opportunity when he got one.

Keith nodded, and Lance unlocked his phone and crawled as far out on the sofa as he could to get the ultimate picture. But when Lance pressed the button, he realized what extremely foolish, stupid and devastating mistake he’d just made…

The flash was on.

Allura and Shiro reacted at once. They had quickly broken apart and were now staring awkwardly, yet furious at the place the flash had come from, which led them straight to Keith and Lance. The moments they spent looking at each other while progressing what’d actually happened was probably one of the worst moments in Lance’s life so far.

But the Lance got to his senses and took as steady grip on Keith’s hand that didn’t hold the milkshake, and dragged him away from the crime scene while rapidly screaming _“Abort mission!_ ”, and they were once again running. Lance could swear he heard Allura scream something after them, but he was so set in on leaving the fast food restaurant that he didn’t quite manage to distinguish what she said.

They reached the motorcycle, and Lance could swear that he’d never seen anyone starting, and getting away on a bike as fast as they did now, not even in those exaggerated scenes in action movies. When Lance’s arms was once again tightly wrapped around Keith’s waist and he could feel the air brushing through his hair, he turned his head around to look as Allura, who’d given up on catching up with them and was just standing there instead, while striking out her tongue as a little child.

Lance took the chance to playfully blow her a kiss, before securing his arm around Keith once again not risking the possibility of a powerful concussion. And as they want down the road even faster this time than the last, they were laughing as if their lives depended on it. It was somewhere around that point, among the humming from the bike, the scent of early autumn and his arms safely wrapped around Keith’s waist that Lance realized that at this moment, there were no place he’d rather be.

 

…

 

The old outlook was even more beautiful at night, with the thousand stars visible even clearer than they’d been anytime previously that night. Keith seemed to appreciate the view at least as much as Lance, since he’d removed his helmet and was now longingly leaning over the fence, and it seemed as if the stars was not only in the sky, but also trapped inside of Keith’s beautiful brown eyes.

Lance mentally slapped himself. Sure, he’d accepted his super mega big crush on Keith for quite a long while now actually, but that wasn’t reason enough to let him think about all this sappy stuff. Not that the eye thing wasn’t true, but still…

“Wow…”Keith said after a while, still looking longingly over the edge. “The view is… good.”

Lance was quite happy that Keith was busy enjoying the view so that he wouldn’t notice that Lance wasn’t watching the view and that he was observing Keith’s silhouette instead, still lit up by the early September moon.

“Yeah” Lance answered with a dreamy voice, and his gaze still on Keith. “Yeah, you’re...” Lance cleared his throat, before correcting himself. “I mean, _it’s_ really… good”

Fuck this shit, why did it have to be so difficult talking to attractive people? Or even worse, _attractive people that used to be your enemy but is now your friend that you sort of unfortunately have a giant crush on_. Keith, luckily, didn’t seem to notice Lance’s slip up, or at least he didn’t mention it. He just took a deep breath, inhaling the lukewarm night’s air.

Lance began to bite his lip, trying to gather the right words in his head so that he’d be able to ask Keith that question that he’d wanted to ask ever since that McDonalds incident. That one about Keith actually wanting to hang out with him, and that idea that maybe, just maybe his feelings weren’t one sided. Normally, this wouldn’t be any problem at all, but these feelings for Keith were bigger than any romantic feelings Lance ever had towards another person. And it scared him. What if it wasn’t mutual? What if Keith would be grossed out if he found out?

No, Lance shook his head. Keith wasn’t like that, that was not an approved excuse. He really had to ask didn’t he? Because if not now, when?

“Well… since you didn’t answer the question earlier, I’m going to ask it again now, why did you want to hang out with me tonight, and why didn’t you tell me that at the beginning?”

It was impossible to read Keith’s expressions at this, not only because he was facing another way but also because Keith had always been a bit difficult to read, at least according to Lance. But then, the unexpected happened. Keith turned around, facing a slightly surprised Lance with the glimpse back in his eyes once again. Lance could feel his heart skip a beat when Keith let a small grin play on his lips as well.

“Isn’t that obvious? You´re the only one who’s able to keep up with me!”

Even though Lance had (not so) secretly hoped that Keith’s answer would consist of some ridiculous love confession involving space similes and poetry, he wasn’t that disappointed-only a little bit. He didn’t really mind being the only person to run around cities and talk about philosophical questions with Keith. It made him feel as if they were strangely connected in some way. But Lance tried his best to not let these sappy emotions show; he actually had a reputation to cling unto so he just snorted instead.

“It’s rather you who can keep up with me.”

Keith punched him in the arm as a response, which he probably deserved…

“My turn… Well, now you know why I asked you to hang out, but why did you accept?”

Lance raised an eyebrow. ”Isn’t that obvious? I did it because I wanted to hang out with you as well, nerd!” He said, before adding, this time with a lower and more sincere voice; “…and I’m actually sort of glad that I did.”

“Me too.”

They spent a while looking into each other’s eyes, with only the sound of a lonely mockingbird in the background until they both at the same time realized what they were doing and quickly tore away their gaze, stubbornly staring towards the opposite direction, which in Lance’s case happened to be a big, old oak.

Lance took a deep breath. He knew exactly what he was going to ask this time, but it was still probably the most difficult one to tell so far.

“Hey Keith, do you like someone? Like, like like you know?”

The urge to smash his head against the oak was really strong. Why the fuck had he said that? He probably sounded like ten years old… except that even a ten year old would have done that smoother.

“Yeah, I do.”

Just as many times earlier that night, Lance’s heart seemed to stop.

“Wait are you serious, no way! Who do you like?!” Lance said as he quickly turned around to face Keith.

“Nice try, but you’ve already asked your question, I think it’s my turn now… So do you have a crush on someone?”

To get his own question turned against himself was totally unfair, and Lance almost regretted his decision to suggest this game. Like he should have known that it was going to end like this, it always did! But he was already caught in the spider web now, so all he could do was to play along and hope that he wouldn’t end up heartbroken.

“I guess so.”

Well, constantly pining for someone for around a month sure as hell wasn’t worth an “I guess so”, but Lance was honestly starting to panic right now. And he knew that when he’d asked the next question, it would only get worse. But even though it terrified him, he really needed this answer and somehow Lance knew that he was ready for it.

“Who do you like?” Keith’s face was almost as red as Lance thought his was, and that is to say quite a lot.

“At first, I didn’t like him at all. He was loud, obnoxious and annoying. He still is, but he is so many other things as well. He is always there to support his friends, even if it means taking the blame. He is funny, much funnier then I like to admit, and he will never turn down a challenge, and he’s really beautiful as well! There are still so many other amazing things left that I love about him and want to be a part of, even if he doesn’t like twilight and thinks my hair is stupid!”

Lance was star struck, and he still hadn’t really progressed what Keith just said, it all seemed to perfect to be true, man, this was even better than the hypothetical space similes and poetry, but still all he managed to answer was; “I don’t actually think your hair is stupid… only a little but that’s okay.”

Keith chuckled, and he was no longer blushing as much as previously.

“...Can I kiss you?” Lance asked, and he still wasn’t quite sure if he was dreaming or not, but even if he was, he wouldn’t let this opportunity go to waste.

“I thought we’d agreed on not asking two questions in a row”

Lance rolled his eyes towards this. Why did Keith have to be such a tease?

“I hate you, have I ever told you that?”

For the last time that night, the glint in Keith’s eyes appeared. “Oh trust me, you have. But I think we both you’re know you’re lying.” And with that, Keith finally closed the distance between them, and kissed him as if his life depended on it.

If you’d ask some of their classmates what the deal with Lance and Keith was all about, they’d probably say that they were rivals, neck in neck, always fighting over grades.

If you’d try to ask their teachers instead, then they’d probably say that Lance and Keith were the best students in their class, but one of them should really try to keep his voice down during lesions.

If you’d feel like asking their best friends, they’d probably just roll their eyes and say that they most dense idiots god ever created.

But if you asked Lance and Keith themselves, they’d tell you that they were in love.

**Author's Note:**

> me: they are gonna be like really cool in this and like jump from houses and shit and they gonna be so so mature about it!!  
> (actually ends up being really cute and domestic and involving so much blushing. like a lot)  
> me@me: wtf?
> 
> anyway thank you so much for reading, and i hope that you liked it! if you leave a comment or kudos i'll love you forever, and i always appreciate criticism if there's something i can improve!


End file.
